Healing Rites of Passage

Interfaith Ministry

“I’m not religious. I’m spiritual.” I have heard this more often than not in the past 15 years. It is how I’ve described my own Faith system for more than 30 years now. And it is exactly why my compulsion to serve in a spiritual role led me to my recent induction as a First […]

Jade

September 10, 2020

faith, Meditation, personal development, spirituality

chaplaincy, end of life doula, end of life holistic support, faith, faith system, guidance, spiritual advisor, spiritual guidance, spirituality
What The Lack Of End Of Life Planning Really Costs

I want to share a deeply personal story. At the time of his death my daughter’s father and I had been divorced for four years. During our 23 year marriage, because of my career, we always had open discussions about dying and death. We were open with our daughter about death, never shielding or protecting […]

Jade

May 18, 2020

death and dying, emotional estate planning, end of life doula, end of life doula, grief

a good death, autonomy in death, death, death and dying, death conversations, death doula, end of life planning, positive death movement
To Tell, Or Not To Tell The Children, There’s No Question

It is our job as parents to protect, nurture, and guide our children into whole human beings. It is our responsibility to do this to the best of our ability. If we do it right, the parenting role will take us outside our comfort zone more often than it doesn’t. Sometimes stretching us into improved […]

Jade

May 5, 2020

death and dying, emotional estate planning, end of life doula, end of life doula, fear, grief, parenting, personal development

a good death, autonomy in death, children, death, death and dying, death conversations, death doula, do death better, positive death movement
The ACTS Of Empowerment

ACTS of Empowerment One of the scariest situations we can be in, is the one where we are not in control. This time in our country’s timeline will go down as one of the scariest of all; A time when we had to physically separate from loved ones for fear of a life threatening invader. […]

Jade

April 25, 2020

Abraham Hicks, death and dying, fear, grief, personal development

control, death and dying, empower, empowerment, fear, loss, women’s empowerment
A Dialogue About Death

Every story ever written has a beginning, middle and an end. Every author considers the end when first sitting down to write a storyline; However in the greatest story an individual will ever author, the end is often left unscripted. We can’t write death in on our calendars and begin to plan when it seems […]

Jade

April 21, 2020

death and dying, emotional estate planning, end of life doula, end of life doula, fear, grief, life, personal development

a good death, autonomy in death, COVID-19, death, death and dying, death conversations, death doula, do death better, end of life planning, mortality, pandemic, positive death movement
Pandemic Traumatic Grief

To a certain degree there is trauma in every loss, whether it is the unexpectedness of it, the suffering of it, the impact of it, the violence of it or the massiveness of it. Every loss has an element of trauma to it. It is the magnitude of the event that makes it traumatic. As […]

Jade

March 29, 2020

death and dying, emotional estate planning, end of life doula, end of life doula, fear, grief, personal development

#traumatotranscendent, emotional estate planning, end of life, stages of grief, traumatic grief
Message In The Madness

I often receive criticism for my philosophy that within an illness or calamity a message resides. However, it has always served me well to see Life in this way and so I continue. The current event of the Corona pandemic is no exception. The message I have deciphered so far is… RESET A forced time-out […]

Jade

March 20, 2020

personal development
We're Failing Families

Are We Failing Families At The End Of Life? Of course we are failing families at the end of life!! Death and dying are treated as medical events rather than holistic ones! Conversations around the emotional and spiritual aspects of dying and death are completely shut down, circumvented or worse totally dismissed! In the past […]

Jade

March 6, 2020

death and dying, end of life doula, end of life doula, personal development

alternative solutions, do death better, end of life planning, failing end of life, hospice, palliative
The Story Of Hope

I come into people’s lives at times when hope is challenged. I hear phrases such as, “we aren’t giving up hope”, “there’s no hope” and “it’s hopeless”. Individuals often describe feeling hopeless as well. Hope is not a feeling. It is something you feel yes, but in and of itself, hope is not a feeling. […]

Jade

February 25, 2020

death and dying, end of life doula, end of life doula, grief, life, personal development

end of life, end of life doula, hope, hopeless, life-limiting, no hope, terminal
Carol

Holistic Support In Uncertain Times Carol was the neighborhood mom of my adolescence. Carol’s daughter, Marsha, and my younger sister were the best of friends. While in our youth we were not allies, as we grew into adulthood we grew closer. I had peripherally understood that Carol had battled a few different types of cancer […]

Jade

February 24, 2020

death and dying, end of life doula, end of life doula, grief

aging, crisis, ding, dying, end of life, end of life doula, holistic support, hospice, palliative care, support, trauma